Single-column selector for card-sorting machines



R. E. PAGE.

SINGLE COLUMN SELECTOR FOR CARD SORTING MACHINES- APPLICATION FILED JUNE 11, 1921. RENEWED um. I6, 1922.

1,426,499. Patented Aug. 22, 1922.

3 SHEETS-$HEET l.

R. E." PAGE.

SINGLE COLUMN SELECTOR FOR CARD SORTING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE II, I921. RENEWED IAN. I6, I922- Patented Aug. 22, 1922.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

I S IIIII IIIIIIIII air-lulu I ll 1 I !IIII|II|II III/ll I/l I All gs Ill/III R. E. PAUL.

SINGLE COLUMN SELECTOR FOR CARD SORTING MACHINES. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 11. 1921. RENEWED 11. 16.1922.

1,426,499, Patented Aug. 22, 1922.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

- UNITED- STATES;

PATENT OFFICE.

RALPH EUGENE PAGE, OF BINGHAMTON, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TOTHE TABULATING MACHINE COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

SINGLE-COLUMN SELECTOR FOR OARD-SORTING MACHINES.

Specification of Application filed June 11, 1921,"ser1a1 No. 476,961.

To all wiiom it may concern: 7

Be it known that I, RALPH E. PAGE, a citizen of the United States of America, re.-

Broome and State ofNew York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Single-Column Selectors for Card- Sorting Machines, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

In many branches of industry at the present day the use of tabulating machines has become very general and they are coming to be regarded as indispensable. In these machines cards are used which are first punched or perforated at given points in one or more columns to indicate dates, classes or other distinctive features, and in other columns, amounts or other data, the aggregate or totals of which it may be desired to compute. In conjunction with the tabulating machine proper there is always employed. a card-sorting machine which is a piece of apparatus into or through which a number of cards of different kinds or classesare passed, and which operates to sort out from the whole lot all of the cards ofa certain definite kind or class, without disturb ing the sequence of the rejected or unsorted cards.

Tabulator cards have always a certain number of vertical columns of spaces to the number necessary for punching perforations corresponding to the digits and such-other arbitrary data as may be required, and certain of these columns are set aside for. the perforations which indicate the particular kind or class to which such card belongs. These holes, known as the index holes, are successively brought in the card-sorter into operative or control position under contact brushes, and set by means of the record which they contain the mechanism which is instrumental in controlling their delivery into the appropriate compartment or receptacle, while those cards which it is not dep sired to sort out, have no effect upon the sorting mechanism, but simply pass through and into a general delivery receptacle.

Card sorting machines are equipped with selectors which act upon the whole or any part of a single indicating column at. a time, and these attachments are provided with means which may be set or adjusted to act Letters Patent.

in response to any definite perforation in,

the column andthus sort out only those cards which have such perforations. Such devices are known as single column selectors,

and to this class of devices belongs the apparatus which I have devised, and upon which is based the present application for Letters Patent. This apparatus is an improvement upon those which preceded it in being more simple in construction and operation, while at the same time it is capable of performing all of the operations of single column selectors either for straight sorting, or, in other words, picking out cards with index holes punched in any part of a column or for split sorting, by which is meant selecting those cards only which have holes punched in one part of a column.

The improved device is shown in the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a side view chiefly of the exterior of the device which constitutes an attachment to a card sorter.

Fig. 2 is an end view of the same.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on the line 3--3 of Fig. 1. I

Fi 4 is a view in elevation looking to the right from the line 4'4 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is a detail sectional view, and

Fig. 6 is a wiring diagram, illustrating the mode of operation of the device.

The attachment is provided with a support having legs 1, and is adapted to be set upon the frame of a card-sorting machine in such position and relation thereto that it may be driven thereby through a gear wheel 2, at such rate that its shaft 3 makes one complete revolution or cycle for each card that passes through the sorter. To the shaft 3 at its inner end is secured an insulating bushing 4, and to this bushing is clamped-by a screw 5 .a brush-holder 6, carrying a brush 7.

Rigidly fixed to the brush-holder 6 is a late 8 with a central projection- 9 upon which latter bears a spring 10 which thus maintains electrical contact therewith, "the other end of said spring 10 being secured to a terminal post 11 set in a molded insulating distributer ring 12. By this means the circuit is completed from the post 11 to the brush 7.

The insulating distributer ring 12 is propthe-ring '12 eleven contact blocks 15, spaced erly secured to the frame. or support of the instrument and molded into it is a metal distributer'ring 14 having a sin le projection extending therefrom throng the insulating rin 12 to formga terminal binding post 13. There are also set or molded into each other.

' To the metal distributer ring 14 there are secured contact springs 16 spaced 1/14 1/14 of the circle apart'and insulated from ofthe circle apart, which springs lie over the contact blocks 15 but are normally held by their resilience out of contact therewith.

- main in either their in or out positions in the rin 18 to which they .may be adjusted. W en a plug is pushed in, it presses its underlying spring 16 into contact with the contact block 15 immediately beneath it, and thus completes the circuit from such block to the terminal post 13. This part of. the circuit is manifestly interrupted when the plug is pulled out.

The operatlve parts of the device are enclosed by suitable plates '19 which are held byproperscrews and, as shown in Fig. 1, numbers are stamped on'the casing close to the index buttonsor plugs 17, which correspond with the horizontal rows of numbers on a card, or to thenumbers which may be unched out from the card.

he brush 7 is so timed in its movement that is makes contact with a contact block 15 at the moment that the contact brush 21, F ig.'6, in the sorting machine makes contact through oneof the holes in the card passing through the sorter, with the roller or metal plate 22.

Referring now to Fig. 6: The. index buttons or plugs 17 are here represented as switch leverswhich electrically connect the ring 14 with the blocks 15, and the brush 7 is represented as a rotor which in its movement makes contact successively with the blocks 15. The cards to be sorted are passed successively between the contact brush 21 and the plate 22, and when a perforation in a card comes under the brush the current .from a suitable source as 23, flows and energizes the sorting .magnet 24, which by means of a suitable device delivers the card into its appropriate compartment or receptacle.

The control contacts 25 are not new in connection with a sorting machine,-and are intended to complete the circuit at this point after the bottom edge of the card is just below the contact brush and before the brush makes contact through a number 9 hole. These contacts 25 are alsointended to open this circuitafter the-i brush has passed an X hole and before the to edge of .the'card" is at the contact brush. he purpose of this is to give ample time and opportunity for the operation of the machine when the brush is passing over the space between. the cards. It will be borne in mind that in sorting cards the contact-brush- 21 makes contact first through the 9 hole' in the card and the others in the reverse order of their numerical values, becomes the cards are fed into the machine right side up. Any card punched with a hole in the extreme "top ;.or' R position will be delivered into the R or reject box.

To use this device for straight sorting all of the index buttons will be pushed in so that cards will be sorted solely under the control of the brush and contact member 22 according to the; position of a hole in any part of a vertical column. To s lit the column,-,as it is called, at any desired point, as between the 6 and 7 positionsina vertical column, and to reject all cards havin index point perforations of 7," 8 and 9, al

the index buttons except those marked 7, I

8 and 9 will be pushed in, in which event all cards that have holes punched in them in the 7, 8 or 9 position will be bunched and rejected while all others will be sorted into their appropriate boxes, under control of the brush 21 and contact 22. It

may also be desired to split the column and to select only in accordance with one or a plurality of the index points of the passing cards. Applied to the previous illustration either one or more of the buttons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 could be pulled out in which case the sort would ohly be effective on the positions corresponding to the button or buttons which were in in position, etc. Further the device may be used for selecting such cards which have only a certain hole. If cards which. have, say, the 5 hole, punched are to be selected from a pack, the index plug N o. 5 alone is pushed in andall others would be leftout. except those containing a 5 hole would go to the reject box.

To select more than one position, say, 2 and 4, the 2 and 4 index buttons are pushed in and the others are left out. In this case if cards pass through the machine having either a 2 or a 4 hole punched therein but not both, such cards will be sorted into their respective boxes and all others will be rejected. If, however, there are cards in the pack having both the 2 and 4 hole therein, it wouldbe sorted into the No. 4 box and the cards from this box would have 'to be sorted again, with only the 2 button pushed in in order to classify them." The In this case all cards same method would be followed in split sortin with cards in the bunch having two holes 1n the same card column in the selected split section and with two buttons pushed 1n.

The results which ma be accomplished will readil be understoo from the d1agram Fig. 6. ,l-l ere it is shown that the sorting circuit is under a plural control; 1st, that directly controlled by the index points of the card which'is secured by means of the sortin brush and contact 21-22. Second, there 1s a supplementary control which is secured b rotating brus 7 and the button controlle switches 17. In order that a card go to a particular box it is necessary that the sorting circuit be concurrently established through all controlling points.

From the above explanation it will be understood how the device is to be used under all other conditions met with in practice in the use of these machines. The apparatus has been found to be a very efiicient and highly useful means of utilizing to the best advantage the possibilities of the cards and of the apparatus heretofore in use, and to greatly extend the field of usefulness of the sorting machine by simplifying man operations Where it is desired to distinguis and select out cards of a certain class or character.

The device as shown and described above,

is designed and adapted for use with a card sorting machine, but the nature'of the results secured by its use renders it applicable to other uses and purposes. I desire therefore to cover notonly the device in combination with a card sorter, but as a useful apparatus of itself.

Having now described my invention, what I claim is: I

1. In a single column selector for card sorting machines, the combination with two terminals adapted for connection with the sorting mechanism, of a movable brush connected with one terminal and adapted to complete one cycle of movement while a card is passing through the .sorting machine, a series of evenly spaced contact blocks over which the brush passes, an overlying series of contactselectrically connected with the other terminalnormally out of engagement with said blocks, and means for connecting up any or all of said contacts and blocks whereby circuit paths between the said terminals will be completed through the said connected contacts.

2. In' a single column selector for card sorting machines, the combination with two terminals adapted for connection with the sorting mechanism of a rota brush connected with one terminal an adapted to make one complete rotation while a card is passing through the sorting machme, a series of evenly spaced contact blocks over which the brush rotates, an overlying series of contact springs electrically connected with the other terminal but normally out of engagement with the contact blocks and means or .-,bringing and maintaining any or all of said contact springs in engagement with the contact blocks whereby circuit paths between the said terminals will be completed through the engaging/contacts.

3. The combination with the shaft adapted to make one revolution while, a card is passing through a sorting machine, a brush carried by said shaft, a circular series of evenly spaced contact blocks over. which the brush travels, a metal ring with spring contacts thereon which overlie, but do not engage, said contact blocks, a series of index plugs or buttons for forcing said contact springs into engagement with the blocks, and circuit connections from the brush and from said contact springs adapted for connection with the sorting mechanism of a card sorter.

4. The: combination with an insulating support, of a distributer metal ring, and a plurality of metal contacts set in the said support, a series of spring contacts overlying said contacts and normally out ofengagement therewith, said spring contacts being secured to the distributer ring, a brush'movable over the said contacts, means such as movable plugs for forcing any one or all of said springs into engagement with their underlying contacts and circuit terminals connected respectively with the brush and the distributer ring.

5. In a smgle column selector for a sortin machine, in combination, means for cont 51 r ling a sorting circuit, comprising means for successively closing a portion 'of said circuit every time another portion of said circuit is established under. the control of the index points of a record card, and means independent of the index point perforations in the cards for selectively closing said circuit at one or more other points in correspondence with the index point positions to selectively redetermine upon which index point or pomts the sort is to be effective.

6. A controlling means for a circuit controlled'at one point by the index point perforations of record cards, comprising a sup-' cordance with any one, or any plurality oli, or all of the index points of any given single column oi passing record cards.

8. In a single column selector for a sorting machine, comprising an attachment adapted to permit split sorting of cards having, split co umns with index points 1n each split portion of said column, and having in combination therewith means for selectively controlling the sort in accordance with any one index point in any split portion.

9. In a single column selector for a sorting machine, in (:OlIlblIl atlOn, a sorting circuit, means for controlling the same, a plurality of circuit closers selectively operable to close or open one or a plurality of circuits from said sorting circuit to one or a plurality of points, a movable member for Suecessively closing a circuit to said points as the successive index points of passing record cards pass their circuit controller, said circuit closer and said movable member being adapted to cooperate to conjointly control the sorting circuit and to predctermine upon which index points the sort is to be effective.

10. In a single column selector for a sorting machine, in combination, means for controlling a s ortin r circuit comprising means forsuccessively c losing a portion of said circuit as the successive index points of arec- 0rd car pass under the sorting brush and means for selectively closing said circuit at one or more other points to selectively control the establishment of said circuit by the first mentioned means to predetermine upon which index points the sort is to be effective.

In testimony whereof I hereto afiix my signature.

RALPH EUGENE PAGE. 

